Puppy update!

[juliet]

Sidney is settling in beautifully, bless her. Housetraining still a little erratic, but we're getting there. (For now, she is not allowed upstairs, where there is carpet.) She's basically very obliging/keen to Do The Right Thing, as & when she understands what the Right Thing is :) Her table manners are pretty good (i.e. she stands or sits and stares longingly at us, rather than sticking nose-under-elbow) although her human-eating-on-sofa manners aren't quite there yet (stands a bit too close for comfort!).

I let her off-lead in the park yesterday afternoon & this morning, on the grounds that a) she does know her name and her on-lead / in-house recall is good, & b) she was getting relaxed enough to start pelting off on the extending lead, & I was worrying that she might hurt herself when she ran out of lead. (If we want to use it much in future, we'll need to get a harness instead, I think; but being able to let her off-lead when she doesn't need to be on a short lead would be far preferable.) It went very well! Although there were a couple of occasions where calling her over for a treat was unsuccessful: just too focussed on whatever she was sniffing at to hear me. When I got her attention, she came back happily. Hurrah.

More importantly: she runs very, very fast, and she clearly loves just hooning around in circles, although it is EVEN BETTER if she has a thing to run after. She jumped straight over some poor dog this morning: pelted over to say hello & couldn't decelerate quite fast enough, so she bounced over him instead and screeched to a halt.

Sidney: Hi! Who are you? Hello hi hello!
Other dog: Um. Hi?
Sidney: Hello hello hi hello! Are you going to run? C'mon, come and run with me!
Other dog: Um. [looks a little worried]
Me: Hey, Sidney, I think he doesn't want to play.
Sidney: OH WELL fair enough [zooom off towards me]

I am bracing myself for the expected bad behaviour/boundary-pushing in a fortnight or so (lots of rescue dogs go through this once they've settled down a bit & stop being all "HELLO I AM LOVELY WELL-BEHAVED DOG PLEASE LET ME STAY!".

Comments

[samvara]

She sounds like she's settling in nicely. Good to hear she's coming back when you let her off - and table manners = win!

My rescue dog was badly behaved for quite a while but he was in terrible emotional shape when I got him so not unexpected.

[juliet]

Last night we had Work Through The Stairgate Fun[0] which would have been OK (she didn't try to get through the bedroom door) except that we woke up to mess on the carpet :-/ Am hoping that this was mostly the result of the overexcitement of having gotten through the stairgate.

She's obviously a little nervous but not too badly-off emotionally -- she was given to Battersea (aged 6 months) by her former family, so she's never been full-on abandoned, and I think she made friends at Battersea (two people came out to say goodbye to her while we were waiting to sign her out!). I think her former family were probably at least mildly neglectful and possibly a little abusive (she's got a strong fear reaction to a particular sort of bloke, and got really scared yesterday when I was a bit grumpy taking her out in the rain -- must watch my body language!) but of the "yelling & not being fair to her" persuasion rather than the full-on beating-up-on persuasion.

[0] She got through once, & I went back down & screwed it in much more firmly, with her watching every move I made. Banging noises commenced again the moment I shut the bedroom door, & I would *swear blind* she was concentrating on the bit where the screws are.

[samvara]

Hee, I have the 'thump mom's door open' game which I am winning... just. I hope the mess is infrequent :)

Mine came from the Cockburn City Works depot (didn't make it to a shelter) and was shivering, unwashed and half starved. He has a strong fear reaction to anger, loud poeple, sticks, stick-like shapes including people carry flowers and random people (no idea what the common 'people' denominator is). I suspect he was beaten and abandoned, he was very clingy and had lots of separation anxiety.

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

PUPDATE! :D ♥

[ladyjulian.livejournal.com]

MUST come and meet Sidney!!

[juliet]

Please do! I am all about the socialising her with many different people.

(actually if you do come over I might ask if we can meet up with you in the park or something before heading to house, as that is a different sort of meeting-people & would be useful)

[ladyjulian.livejournal.com]

As soon as it stops bloody raining that sounds like a plan!

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

If you're visiting I should come and join you for tea and natter!

[adjectivegail]

I am also a) extremely keen to meet Sidney, and b) very happy to meet somewhere not-home and help with socialising, if that would be helpful for you?

[adjectivegail]

(P.S. re humans eating on sofa, I tend to stand up and get in the dog's space, until they back up a bit. Then I sit down again. It can make it v non-confrontational and I don't speak, so there isn't really much they can complain about.)

[juliet]

Yes, thank you! TBH mostly she seems fine with people in general & v friendly, but I figure the more I encourage this the better!

(The current exception is "stocky men in baseball caps" (haven't yet encountered a baseball-cap-wearer who isn't also a stocky bloke so not sure how specific the reaction is) who she is scared enough of to growl at. Happily one of these blokes was a fellow dog-walker whose dog was also a Battersea rescue, and he was happy to hang around & chat with me until she came out from behind my legs and sniffed at him and then calmed down.)

Anyway -- yes, please do come over & meet her! Drop me an email?

Also, thank you for the food/sofa tip -- I will try that out.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

This post is defective, it features no dog pictures.

[juliet]

She really is very fast-moving...

[titaniccapybara.livejournal.com]

I am bracing myself for the expected bad behaviour/boundary-pushing in a fortnight or so (lots of rescue dogs go through this once they've settled down a bit & stop being all "HELLO I AM LOVELY WELL-BEHAVED DOG PLEASE LET ME STAY!".
This bit made me go awwww the most. He sounds lovely.